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Sir Roy Strong's Pierpont Morgan Rose
Garden at The Laskett in Herefordshire, England, provides a bilaterally
symmetrical garden scene. A mirror image is composed of pairs of statues,
trees, and shrubs flanking the pathway.
(Photo: Jerry Harpur) |
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Statuary, such as the Beaton
Sundial, obelisk, and finials on low columns, provide interest in the
garden long after the last flower fades.
(Photo: Jerry Harpur) |
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A tunnel of hedging leads the eye
to the the Victoria & Albert Museum Temple, which punctuates Mary Queen
of Scots, a long hedged walk at The Laskett. A small bench sits beneath a
medallion designed by Strong.
(Photo: Jerry Harpur) |
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Formal gardens have a look -- be it a neatly ordered
medieval kitchen garden or the terraced hillside of an Italian Renaissance
villa; boxwood parterres that punctuate a French landscape; or the lush
planting and ancient architectural fragments of an English Arts and Crafts
garden. Virtually every master of landscape design from the Renaissance
forward has attempted to imprint his or her personality onto the land, but
despite the enormous range of interpretations, it is possible to distill a
few basic components of the formal garden.
Symmetry
Symmetrical layout is perhaps the most defining
feature. No matter the overall scale of the garden or the shapes of its
various parts, if you draw a line down the middle of a formal garden, one
side should mirror the other.
Symmetry enables the garden to accomplish one
of its most basic missions: to impose order, balance, and harmony onto the
changing canvas of nature. Repetition and rhythm occur with boxwoods
sculpted into a variety of shapes. Evergreen shrubs or borders of annual
color visually reinforce the line of a pathway.
A Flat Ground Plane
Most of the great formal gardens throughout history
underwent considerable leveling of the terrain through terracing and step ramps. The reason is optical: Too many undulations skew the look of symmetry and balance. A formal garden
requires a minimum plane of 12 feet by 12 feet to create the most visual impact, so be prepared to
level your land accordingly.
Well-Planned Pathways
Walking around or through a formal garden, even a
tiny one, is the best way to appreciate it. Ideally, paths are wide enough
to accommodate two people side by side. Gravel, stone, and brick are good
choices for paving.
A sailor edge of brick set three inches above the
finished pathway provides a well-drained planting bed and defines the edge.
Grass paths work well for formal gardens in the country. Pathways outline
the geometric shapes of the planting beds and interlock to form the overall
pattern of the garden.
A Strong Axis
Paths provide visual sight lines or axes that lead to
dramatic end points, which are typically punctuated with an urn, statue,
arch, gate, or vista that arrests and captivates the eye. One of the most
basic and timeless garden layouts is the four-square form, the result of
two straight paths intersecting at right angles to form a cross, yielding
four rectangular or square planting beds. With five- to eight-foot-wide
beds, it remains a favorite layout for small kitchen gardens. To frame an
axial view, sculptural forms of evergreen plants are placed at the entry
and exit.
